Patrick Mahomes

This week’s article is about NFL quarterback and MVP Patrick Mahomes. Born September 17, 1995, Mahomes is of Caucasian descent on his mother’s side and African American descent on his father’s. Even at a young age, Mahomes was surrounded by professional sports as his father, Pat Mahomes, was a major league pitcher. Growing up, Mahomes played football, basketball, and baseball. During his senior year of high school, Mahomes threw for over 4,600 yards as a quarterback and managed a 16 strikeout no-hitter in his spring season. His athletic accolades led him to become Maxpreps Male Athlete of the Year for the 2013-2014 season. While Mahomes was thought to have been a top prospect in the MLB draft that year, he instead chose to continue his education and football career at Texas Tech.

Balancing both football and baseball in his Freshman and Sophomore years, Mahomes quickly showed his talent at the quarterback position. In the 2015 season, Mahomes threw for over 4,500 yards as well as completing 36 touchdown passes. As he began to shine as the Texas Tech starting quarterback, he stopped playing baseball after his sophomore year to focus on football. His decision paid off as in his Junior year of college Mahomes broke both the NCAA single-game yards passing and single-game yards total offense records in a loss to Baker Mayfield’s Oklahoma Sooners (Baker Mayfield would later go No. 1 Overall in his NFL Draft Class). Having such a successful season, Mahomes declared for the NFL draft and would not finish his senior year.

Mahomes was drafted 10th Overall in the 2017 NFL draft by the Kansas City Chiefs. Through most of his rookie year, Mahomes took reps behind Alex Smith, only starting the Chief’s last regular game of the season against the Denver Broncos. In the offseason, the Chiefs traded Alex Smith away to the Washington Redskins, making room for Mahomes to become the new starter. In 2018, Patrick Mahomes went on to have one of the most historic seasons in NFL history, setting multiple NFL records. After throwing for ten touchdowns in the opening two games of the season, Mahomes broke the NFL record for most touchdown passes in a quarterback’s first three games as well as the NFL record for most touchdown passes in the first two weeks of a season. Additionally, Mahomes became the second player ever to throw for 50,000 yards and 50 touchdowns in a single season, joining legendary quarterback Peyton Manning. These achievements and the Chief’s success in the 2018 season led Mahomes to be named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player. Working off this success, Mahomes led the Chiefs to another great season in 2019, where they would go on to win the Super Bowl and where Mahomes became Super Bowl MVP. Most recently, Patrick Mahomes signed the largest contract in NFL history, worth over $450 million as the Kansas City Chiefs extended him for the next ten years.

Matheson Bossick

Project Race Teens Vice President

Sources:

  1. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29418825/sources-chiefs-patrick-mahomes-agree-10-year-extension
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Mahomes
  3. https://www.nfl.com/players/patrick-mahomes/

 

Image from:

https://www.pennlive.com/sports/2020/07/would-the-steelers-ever-pay-patrick-mahomes-type-money-dont-count-on-it.html